Cyrano de Bergerac is a 1950 American film directed by Michael Gordon and produced by Stanley Kramer.
It is a pretty faithful adaptation of the French play Cyrano de Bergerac by Edmond Rostand. José Ferrer plays Cyrano, the witty poet, brave soldier, and master fencer, who has a chip on his shoulder because of his gigantic nose, which makes him doomed to a life without love, or so he believes. Cyrano's friend Le Bret points out that this is nonsense, reminding Cyrano of a buffet table server who is obviously besotted with him, but Cyrano believes he'll always be alone.
The real reason Cyrano believes that he'll always be alone is that he really only has eyes for one woman: his beautiful cousin, Roxane (Mala Powers). He is giddy with joy when Roxane asks him to come see her, thinking that she'll proclaim her love. However he is bitterly disappointed when she says she loves someone else, a soldier in Cyrano's unit, Christian de Neuvillette (William Prince). She asks Cyrano to look after him, and Cyrano wearily agrees. Eventually, Cyrano befriends Christian, and finds himself writing love letters to Roxane, the woman he wants, under his friend's name and on his friend's behalf.
See also the 1990 French film.
Tropes:
- Acoustic License: An odd moment when Roxane is weeping over Christian's body, and Cyrano says out loud that he mourns too for his lost love (her), but that she "does not know...must never know." Roxane does not hear this even though Cyrano is sitting directly behind her. It's obviously an Aside Comment from the play that is somewhat awkward in a live-action film framing.
- Balcony Wooing Scene: The original play is one of the iconic examples (along with Romeo and Juliet, anyway), so naturally it's included here, with Christian in the garden wooing Roxane up on her bedroom's balcony, while Cyrano, hidden, whispers lines.
- Broken Ace: Cyrano, Renaissance man, legendary poet, duelist, soldier, philosopher, physicist, musician, playwright, novelist and excellent actor, who also is an ugly, writhing pile of Freudian Excuse, who systematically throws away every chance of success he has, would rather help some other guy get the girl he loves than confess to her, and assiduously kills anyone who mocks his enormous nose.
- Chiaroscuro: Many scenes are shot this way, like the early scene where Ragueneau walks with Cyrano through the back alleys, with not much more lighting than what Ragueneau's lantern provides. It's arty, but it's also done to conceal the cheap sets on what was a low-budget production.
- Composite Character: Ragueneau in the movie is a combination of Ragueneau from the play (the cook) and Ligniere (the poet threatened with being beaten by 100 men). Le Bret is a combination of the play's Le Bret (Cyrano's friend) and Castel-Jaloux (captain of the Gascony soldiers).
- Death Seeker: After realizing (while everybody's at the siege of Arras) that Roxane doesn't really love him, she loves Cyrano's shadow of him, and for that matter that Cyrano loves her, Christian demands that Cyrano tell her. Then Christian insists on going out for a very dangerous scout of the enemy lines. He is in fact killed.
- Did Not Get the Girl: Cyrano doesn't get Roxane, although it's mostly his own fault.
- Dies Differently in Adaptation: This version of the story changes Cyrano's fatal injuries from getting struck by a falling log to getting struck by a carriage.
- Downer Ending: A dying Cyrano makes it to Roxane's convent one last time. She finally figures out that he was the one writing the letters—that is, he was the one she was in love with all this time—only for Cyrano to die minutes later.
- Establishing Character Moment: They come in a flurry in the opening scene. Cyrano ruthlessly heckles a bad actor until the actor retreats from the stage. He insults the Vicomte de Valvert, mocking him for only being able to say Cyrano's nose is large, and then coming up with a Long List of nose insults of his own. Then he fights a duel with the Vicomte, winning and stabbing the Vicomte with his sword. He's established in one scene as witty, brilliant, impulsive, irascible, and one heck of a sword fighter.
- Feet-First Introduction: The first shot of Cyrano shows only his boots, which are on the ledge of his box, as Cyrano heckles the hammy actor on the stage below.
- Gag Nose: Cyrano has an absurdly big nose.
- Kissing Cousins: Cyrano is desperately in love with Roxane, who is his cousin.
- Large Ham: Cyrano's justification for heckling Montfleury the actor so ruthlessly that Montfleury flees the stage, saying that he "mouths his verse and moans his tragedy." The real reason is that he dislikes Montfleury for hitting on Roxane.
- Long List: The Vicomte, who isn't terribly articulate, can only describe Cyrano's nose as large. A disgusted Cyrano boggles at the Vicomte's lack of imagination, then reels off a long list of nose-themed insults off the top of his head, like how Cyrano's nose must be a nice landing spot for birds.
- Love Letter Lunacy: Cyrano winds up writing letters on Christian's behalf to Roxane. Eventually Christian figures out, from the tears on a letter, that Cyrano loves Roxane himself.
- Loves My Alter Ego: Roxane falls in love with the version of Christian that Cyrano is writing, the one that is sending letters and reciting flowery poetry that Cyrano creates.
- Manly Tears: Cyrano's teardrops on a letter to Roxane are Christian's tipoff that Cyrano loves her too.
- Man on Fire: Cyrano takes on eight thugs outside Ragueneau's house, and, naturally, wins. He dispatches one by throwing Ragueneau's lantern at him, causing the man to catch fire and run off.
- Match Cut: A single torch carried by a sentinel on the street cuts to an array of pikes staged on the defenses of a fort. Cyrano and Christian's regiment has gone to war.
- Oblivious to Love: Roxane completely fails to pick up on Cyrano's obvious love for her, possibly because they grew up together and she can't see him that way.
- Open-Door Opening: Or rather, Open Curtain Opening, as the first scene of the movie is the curtains of a theater stage opening up.
- Plagiarism in Fiction: Ragueneau is outraged that Molière stole a scene from Cyrano's play and used it in his own. Cyrano just thinks that Molière has good taste. (This is from the play and in fact from Real Life, as the play was loosely inspired by the life of the real-life Cyrano de Bergerac, and Molière did in fact rip Cyrano off.
- Playing Cyrano: The original, of course, is the Trope Namer. Cyrano winds up helping Christian to win Roxane, first writing letters for him, then literally whispering lines during the Balcony Wooing Scene.
- Punctuated! For! Emphasis!: Cyrano, barely containing his fury after Christian makes fun of his nose.Cyrano: Who. Is that. Man. There.
- Sarcastic Clapping: Christian tries to talk to Roxane on his own, without Cyrano's help, but all he can think to say is "I love you" and "I adore you" without Cyrano's poetry, and Roxane stalks off disappointed. After she leaves an observing Cyrano makes a big show of clapping and saying "A great success!"
- Secretly Dying: Cyrano goes to deliver Roxane her weekly news update, even though he is bleeding to death from internal injuries due to his...
- Secret Stab Wound: ...injuries suffered when he is trampled by a carriage sent by one of his enemies.
- Single-Target Sexuality: Cyrano, who has eyes only for Roxane. This is shown early in the film where the good-looking buffet serving girl is making all kinds of mating signals towards Cyrano but he politely blows her off. His friend Le Bret observes this scene and can only say "Idiot."
- Taking the Veil: More or less. Roxane has shut herself up in a convent in eternal mourning after the death of Christian, but she has not actually become a nun.
- Time Skip: 14 years between the siege of Arras and Christian's death, and the last part of the film where Cyrano is killed by his enemies.
- Two-Person Love Triangle: Roxane falls in love with the fake version of Christian from Cyrano's letters and flowery poetry, while Cyrano himself is left out. Christian spells this dynamic out when he says "I'm tired of being my own rival!"
